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GERMANY HAS BECOME the latest country to warn its citizens to get away from Libya and its escalating violence.
At least 38 people, mostly soldiers, were killed in 24 hours of fierce fighting between the Libyan army and Islamists in Benghazi, officials said today.
A military source said the clashes broke out yesterday when Islamist groups launched an assault on the headquarters of a special forces unit near the city centre, causing casualties among forces defending their barracks.
Benghazi’s main hospital said the bodies of 28 soldiers had been taken there in the past 24 hours, along with 50 injured, while Al-Marj hospital, 100 kilometres to the east, spoke of two soldiers dead and ten injured.
A spokesman for the self-proclaimed Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries, an alliance of Islamic and jihadist militia who have claimed a number of attacks on military bases in the area, announced that eight of its fighters had died.
An AFP correspondent reported that several families could be seen leaving the area of the clashes, as loud explosions were heard in the city this morning. Near daily clashes take place in Benghazi and the latest came a day after the US evacuated its embassy in Tripoli due to fears for the safety of staff and as Britain joined the Americans in advising its citizens against travel to strife-torn Libya.
Germany has now joined these countries and many others that have warned citizens about the dangers they face in the country.
Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs had already advised against travel to Libya and warned Irish citizens to leave immediately.
- © AFP 2014 with additional reporting by Michelle Hennessy.
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Trump will be reelected. We’ve seen that there’s nothing he can say or do that will turn of his fanbase. He’s the personification of a bigger problem.
@Liam Byrne: His ever shrinking fanbase.
@Liam Byrne: He wont. More people will turn out to vote against him.
@Rob Cahill: It’s not shrinking. It’s probably actually increased. He’ll win the next election by a much larger percentage.
@Rob Cahill: based on?
@Liam Byrne: Bernie Sanders is the most popular politician in America and polls well in trump areas. Did you see his Fox town hall. The hosts were silenced by their audience reaction to him. It all falls on how hard the DNC attack him again. They are not really opposing trump.
@Carlin Ite: popular in the metro areas which doesn’t really matter in a electoral college.
Did you know that Donald Trump Jr. was named a director to Ukraine’s largest private gas producer following a Ukrainian visit by President Trump?
Trump later threatened to withhold $1 Billion in US aid to Ukraine if they didn’t fire a prosecutor looking into Don Jr’s company.
only messing, That was Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
@Niall: Based on Polls and reaction to hs F’ckery.
@Stephen Walsh: you are completely deluded
@Mumpsimus: o he has been canvassing non stop and holding town halls and actually been standing in opposition. Fox polls in 2016 had him beating trump.
@Mumpsimus: no he has been canvassing non stop and holding town halls and actually been standing in opposition. Fox polls in 2016 had him beating trump.
What an epic fail this will be…
@Grand: Running does not mean he will get nominated by the Democrats
@Joe Johnson: If he manages to get the nomination he will be demolished by Trump. But it’s unlikely he will get the nomination in the first place.
@Joe Johnson: ye have more faith in the democratic party leadership than me. They’ll heavily throw their weight behind the most establishment candidate regardless of how hopelessly toxic they are. They’re disconnected from their electorate and constantly confuse centrism with compromise.
@*The* Brendan Gordon: not after Hillary imploding
There are very few things more tiring in politics in the last few years than Trump bashing. There is no candidate that will will beat Trump and he will win by a much larger percentage than last time. Also, Biden is a weirdo.
@Stephen Walsh: no fan of Biden, but of the two I dont think he’d hold a candle to weird Donald
@Stephen Walsh: Tulsi Gabard and Bernie can beat Trump but won’t get the nomination. They don’t accept the corporate donars.
Trump is presiding over a booming economy, low unemployment, America not involved in foreign conflicts- his re-election is assured.
@Mike Conway: This is what loud anti-Trump progressives don’t seem to realise. As long as the economy is doing well a sitting president will almost certainly win a second term. People vote with their wallets even if they have to hold their noses while doing so.
@Mike Conway: Trump will bring the US into a major war before the election to ensure he’s re-elected. War is great for a president.
It even worked for that fool GW Bush, whose popularity went through the roof on 9/11 and the subsequent unjust war carried him through re-election in 2004.
See: https://www.people-press.org/2008/12/18/bush-and-public-opinion/
@bopter: I seriously doubt he will go to war
@Will: I don’t think the vast majority of voters feel the benefit of this boom. Its spoils are reserved for Wall Street and big business. Just look at the tax bill introduced by the Trump administration. It’s a huge gift to big business, meanwhile public expenditure has suffered sizeable cuts. What America needs is policy that tackles these issues, as opposed to empty rhetoric by Biden and his ilk.
@Mike Conway: Not involved? They are the definition of a global army. They are everywhere. They killed 1,600 civilians in one town in Syria, the Iraq and Libyanwar still continue and Iran and Venezualia is is ramping up nicely. They are all over Africa. Not involved
Where is the Great Democrat Hope?
The runners seem to be all has-beens or non-entities.
@ted hagan: I think you are discribing Trump
@ted hagan: Tulsi Gabard
God help us.
@Jack Simpson: If there was a god Trump would never have been born nevermind President of the US.
I do wish some of our politicians were more like Trump, “only” in the way in which if he promises something he will do everything in his power to get it done, that wall, Trump battled so hard to get the wall built, it’s the only characteristic I admire about Trump, If you are a voter and you see this in Trump and he makes an election promise, you can be sure he will fight tooth and nail to get it done
Joe would be a good friend to Ireland, and Netanyahu probably wouldn’t be naming any stolen property after him.
@Ooby Dooby: he condoned the breaking of the agreement(as the US like to do) with Iran and called for economic sanctions. He regards Iran armed forces as a terrorist organisation even though they have never even invaded a country in Iran’s existence. Biden was one of the major cronies that lied to the world to invade Iraq which led to his country massacring hundreds of thousands of civilians. He even defended this in 2007 when we all knew the truth. Regarding Israel, Biden is a pro-Israeli extremist as he is a self-described Zionist. This means that he fully supports the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, literally in the name of God. He’s implied on many occasions that he will support Israel no matter what they do. Bibi could not get a better ally if Joe Biden was elected.
@Cormac Ó Braonáin: Nearly all main-stream Americans politicians are pro-Israel, and though Biden supported the war in Iraq he wasn’t actually involved in planning and implementation, like Perel, Wolfowitz, Cheney etc… My point was, he wouldn’t be as unconditional in his support for Likud like Trump is.
I would prefer to see O’Rourke or Biden run and win for Palestine’s sake but it’s unlikely.
@Ooby Dooby: of course he wasn’t involved in the planning and implementation – he wasn’t an army General. What he was though at the time was the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the most powerful man when it comes to foreign policy legislation and debate in the Senate, both of which centred around lies of WMDs Iraq had which over the next few years would result in the countless massacres of civilians, and the US use of chemical weapons on Falujah in which we’re still seeing the effects of – huge increases of sterility, infertility, congenital malformations etc.(thank you Julien Assange). Then again Biden wanted to invade Iraq in 1998.
@Cormac Ó Braonáin: Eh Cormac, he wasn’t in government – he’s always been a democrat. It was republican policy to invade Iraq.
And the most powerful man in American foreign policy is the president, closely followed by the secretary of state, NOT the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
@Ooby Dooby: I never said Biden was the most powerful man when it came to American Foreign Policy. I said he was the most powerful figure in regards to its legislation…which he was.
Dunno. Think he shot himself in the foot a bit there recently.
@Ann Experiment: forgettable and wooden candidate
Creepy Uncle Joe will get destroyed by Trump. The amount of videos out there of him acting inappropriately around little girls are not small in number.
@jacquoranda: Videos of Trump or Biden??
@jacquoranda: I don’t think that ,” Grab them by their pussy Trump” is clean himself.
May his voting record in congress come back to haunt him. May the press not let it slip.
People should look up a video of this dude going around being a little bit …over friendly with minors let’s just say at a conferring ceremony.
The Dems need to stop doing this. Don’t they realize Trump got in on his anti-establishment angle? Stop putting forward these big wig fossilized candidates.
Where is the Great Democrat Hope?
The runners seem to be all has-beens or non-entities.
@ted hagan: So you keep saying.
@ted hagan: or crazy socialists
@Mumpsimus:
..or anti-Semites and self declared Thracian Gladiators.
@ted hagan: Tulsi Gabard.
The Intersectional Diversity NKVD that is now running the Democratic Party have their work cut out. Their 2 leading candidates are both old, straight, white, cisgendered males. Horrific! We can’t be having that.
He won’t have a feel day… Ops I mean field day in the elections.
@John Blessing:
I love how the anti trump brigade believe he won’t get re-elected. Of course he is I think the smear campaign against him backfired big time.
Two hopes Joe
If it had been 2016, he would’ve beaten Trump. But the Democrats have changed. Who will be his V.P.? It has to be a woman, probably Kamala Harris (who’s half Indian, Jamaican). But she’s not widely liked, is tanking in the polls. A lot of Dems are “Bernie or bust”, won’t accept Biden. Biden will have to adopt political positions to woo Trump voters, this will enrage the intersectional feminists that make up the supporters for the other candidates. Dems as now relying on identity politics and each faction has its own champion: Buttigieg (gays), Booker (Blacks), Harris (women), Beto (Latinos), Sanders (socialists), Warren (native Americans). Only one can be Vice President, the other groups will take offense at being spurned. Biden would end up pandering to all these groups e.g. no deportations, federal voting rights for residents, “reparations” for slavery, woman’s word sufficient for rape conviction, post partum abortion etc etc. Trump will hammer Biden on each of these issues and as he equivocates, his supporters will be disheartened. Trump could lose but Biden won’t win without pissing off most of his supporters.
@Mártan Ó Conghaile: Tulsi Gabbard is the only candidate that’ll stand a chance at swinging republicans to the dark side and the party doesn’t want her.
Hard to call his chances overall.
Getting the Democratic nomination is far from certain as the party moves left but he’s probably got a decent shot given his association with Obama and working class mid-Western persona.
Trump will obviously be a tough challenge if he makes it to the general election but the Democrats will be energised and Trump’s outsider stuff won’t play as strongly after being president for 4 years. On the other hand the economy’s doing pretty well and he hasn’t started any wars.
50/50 shot for Joe I’d say…
He’ll be around 78 if elected! What is the source of this elixir of life US politicians appear to have?
Oh lord God almighty. He is not the solution
Biden is running so he can claim political attack, once all the corruption that he is involved in starts flooding in. Is it by sheer coincidence that there is a shift in power in Ukraine? Creepy Uncle Joe can’t stop what’s coming.
creepy Joe along with the rest of the declared Democrats might as well concede now as not one of them has anything to offer any of trump’s supporters or Republicans in general
He would make a very good caretaker president leaving the place a little better and a little more unified than when he found it. About half of the US presidents were like that, competent and forgettable. Personally I would prefer Bernie and some real changes to the equality of their health and educations systems but I can’t say Biden would be a bad. I think we won’t know how his pole numbers settle for a good 3 to 6 weeks.
this guy is bad news
Have the democrats no one else? Trump will have another 4 so
JB has zero chance of being elected.
Same corporate donars and policies as Obama who turned 2 wars into 7, dropped 26,000 bombs and sold out the American people to the banks and Hilarious Hilary who started a genocide in Libya, couldn’t fill a church hall and couldn’t beat a game show host. No chance son. Not a snowballs chance in hell.
Recession coming in the next 18 months to the USA. First signs like the bond market has inverted.
96% of last years soya bean crop is still in the warehouses unsold due to Trumps spat with China.
In the Mid West and Western States banks are refusing loans to farmers for this years planting, telling them to sell some land instead.
Trump is trying to interfere with the Fed, he is appointing two clowns to the board whose only qualification to serve on the Fed is the are his yes men.
Economy will be in dire straights by 2020.
Hopefully he will win and dump that absolute fool trump out of the White House. An absolute moron who has made a mockery of the POTUS office.
Unfortunately Trump will win the next election unless he does something beyond logic – and it is not because of who is standing against him, it is because of how many standing agianst him.
Republicans, other on the right will vote for him (even if they don’;t like him or agree 10% with him because there is no other option).
Democrats wil eventually pick somebody – but the would-be vote for that domocrat will be dilluted by people voting independent, libitarian, green etc. these are only small 1%-2% vote catchers but together with the millions who do not bother (OR are NOT ALLOWED to vote) making up almost half the adult population, it is those that don’t vote or vote for a no-hoper who wil get trump re-elected.
have your say